There's no place like home

Danielle White (and friend) on the "Blind Pass" set at Dromoland Castle in County Clare, Ireland. [CREDIT: Midnight Pass Productions]

Danielle White left Sarasota to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles, but a year later she had grown weary of life in Santa Monica, where she worked at a cafe and auditioned for commercials alongside throngs of other aspiring thespians.

“I realized it was unlikely I was going to be the brunette with hazel eyes among the hundreds that they were going to want,” says White, a 2010 Booker High graduate. “And anyway, I really didn’t want to audition for McDonalds commercials. In L.A., all my energy just evaporated. It got to the point where I couldn’t even do what I was there to do.”

It was a far cry from the previous year, when the 18-year-old White became a Sarasota celebrity of sorts after playing the lead in local resident Steve Tatone’s “Beautiful Noise,” a musical feature which enjoyed six sold-out screenings at the 2011 Sarasota Film Festival. So when Tatone extended an offer for her to co-produce and play the lead in his newest film, “Blind Pass,” which will have its invitation-only debut at Burns Court Cinema Saturday night, the timing was right.

“I realized I had a different kind of opportunity here, an opportunity to create on a much more fundamental level,” says White, delicately shredding a croissant in a local cafe. “Steve is unafraid to take a chance, which people in L.A. are not going to do.”

The marketing poster for "Blind Pass," a feature film co-produced Sarasota residents Steve Tatone and Danielle White and starring White and Armand Assante.

These days White, who lives with her father on Siesta Key, starts every day “energized and excited about what I am going to do.” For the past year, that has included shooting “Blind Pass” in Sarasota and Ireland (alongside veteran actor Armand Assante), as well as participating in pre-production, editing and post-production decisions. Though not yet a lucrative venture — this weekend’s screening is an appeal to investors — Tatone has offered White, who is a week shy of her 21st birthday, a partnership in his business, Midnight Pass Productions.

“She’s getting an education no film school could buy,” says Tatone. “At 21, she’s getting opportunities she might not get for 10 years. And she’s like a sponge; she takes it all in.”

Tatone, 57, insists he is doing White no favors. Despite their age and experience gap, he sees her not as an apprentice, but an asset. Her organizational skills balance his broader creative vision, he says, making them a complementary team.

“She’s wise beyond her years,” he says. “When it comes to ideas, she’s like an equal and she’s everything I’m not when it comes to details. I’m very good at what I do, but when I’m working with her, I’m great.”

In fact, it was White who planted the seed of what has become “Blind Pass.” She originally returned to Sarasota on the premise of helping Tatone re-develop and extend the storyline in “Beautiful Noise,” which he plans to make into another film and, potentially, a television or Broadway show.

But one afternoon, while discussing business over lunch at a beachside restaurant — the company cannot yet afford its own office space — White protested that “People will think we can only do musicals.” Within 10 days, Tatone had the first draft of the new film, a dramatic thriller, and White embarked on a whirlwind educational journey.

It wasn’t the career path she’d once imagined. When she was 10, her father passed by the family’s bathroom door while White was singing in the shower and thought the radio was on. Soon thereafter she began private singing lessons. At the ripe old age of 11, she got her big break — competing on “American Juniors,” a one-season “American Idols” spinoff for the younger set on Fox television.

The band she sang with (which included Lucy Hale, now on “Pretty Little Liars”) won. White says the experience was “informative,” but not especially enjoyable.

“I learned a lot inadvertently,” she says. “Everyone works at something to be successful, to try to be the best. But what I realized in the process was that all I want is to continually challenge myself and to surround myself with people who love their work as much as I do.”

At that point, White assumed she would pursue that passion through a musical career. In fact, she wasn’t exposed to acting until she entered Booker, where teachers Scott Keys and Candace Artim encouraged her to push beyond her inherently shy, quiet and humble nature and tap into her vulnerable side.

“Two hours a day of attacking my demons,” says White with a smile. “That was so therapeutic. It’s what allowed me to become an actor.”

“Quiet, quiet, quiet lady . . . until called upon,” Artim recalls. “Her acting, even at that young stage, was very connected and very real. I never saw her as becoming, all of a sudden, ‘the latest thing.’ I think there’s more to her than that.”

After graduation, White was accepted as one of eight students for the prestigious acting program at Florida State University. She declined.

“Going to Booker gave me the audacity to turn it down,” she says. “I knew I still had a lot to learn — I still do — but I knew it didn’t have to be in a classroom setting.”

Instead she headed to the West Coast, a move she doesn’t regret. Still, she plays with the idea of returning to school some day, possibly at New College of Florida, where she could get a degree in “something specific, like music as it relates to . . .” — she looks at her plate of crumbs and laughs — “croissants.”

But it might be any number of other possibilities, including producing her own album. As a child, when people asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she told them she wanted to work at Sea World, or be a waitress. While the options have changed, they are still as diverse.

“I’ve always had such a plethora of interests,” White says. “In my whole life, I’ve never been able to answer that question. I’ve never had the ability to extend myself beyond what is right in front of me.”

After months of post-production, even “Blind Pass” is already off her radar screen. She and Tatone have begun working on the “Beautiful Noise” remake, tentatively titled “Serenade,” and White has no intention of going in reverse. She says she may even sneak out of this weekend’s screening.

“You can see my development on film,” she says, cringing. “Most people are not acting with Armand Assante on their second film. Steve likes to watch people watch it, but it makes me so uncomfortable. I’ll probably be in the bathroom.”

White still hopes to return to L.A. some day, but for at least the next year, she is committed to remaining in Sarasota, working with Tatone. In turn, he has created a new division for their collaborations called Lionheart Films; they will equally share in any and all of its profits.

“I love Sarasota and I feel incredibly supported here,” White says. “We are fortunate to live in such an artistic city and we have such an immense amount of talent here.

“What excites both Steve and I about where we live is that it’s a very deep well. And so far, it’s all untapped.”

Carrie Seidman

Dance/arts critic, Sarasota Herald Tribune

Last modified: January 23, 2013
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